Sustainable mobility, connectivity and automated driving
Mobility is a basic prerequisite for economic growth. However, while the need to be mobile at all times is rising, natural resources are dwindling. This calls for comprehensive mobility concepts to minimize the environmental impact. Such solutions need to be efficient, sustainable, customer-oriented and accessible any time and anywhere.
We are researching and developing such concepts and solutions in our Group-wide alliance: when shaping the future of mobility, we are looking not only at the automobile but at all modes of transport and transport infrastructures, at people’s mobility habits and at other relevant factors. Innovations such as digital connectivity and automated driving allow for new approaches to solving problems. We strive to utilize these and thus to play our part in a comprehensive mobility system for the future and to help shape our industry’s transformation.
We are focusing on establishing a cross-brand business area for mobility solutions. We aim to make our mobility business MOIA a scalable and profitable business model.
In its pursuit of autonomous driving, the Volkswagen Group further improved its assistance systems and automated driving functions and introduced these in vehicles in 2019. The objective is to market highly automated driving functions for private vehicles, shared mobility systems and commercial mobility providers as a core competency of the Group. The Volkswagen Group has presented its vision of an autonomous mobility system by unveiling the Sedric family, comprising fully autonomous vehicles for short- and long-distance mobility, as well as sports cars, self-driving delivery vehicles and heavy trucks. These vehicles will enable new forms of mobility in both cities and rural areas, particularly for user groups that have so far been excluded from access to mobility.
Autonomous driving in complex urban environments places especially heavy demands on technology. We are dedicated to meeting these challenges. Our Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH is working on developing a Group-wide system for self-driving vehicles.
As part of the TOGETHER 2025+ strategy, we are working with the Software-enabled Car Company module to make software one of the core competencies of the Volkswagen Group. Starting on January 1, 2020, we brought together all of our interests and subsidiaries that develop software for vehicles and digital ecosystems in the Car.Software organization, an independent entity with Group responsibility. This first step involved around 3,000 employees. Up to the middle of 2020, experts from the various Group brands and regions will also work together under the umbrella of the Car.Software organization.
The Car.Software organization is developing software for five applications within the Group: a uniform vehicle operating system “vw.os” for all Group vehicles as well as its connectivity with the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud; a standardized infotainment platform; all assistance systems including highly automated driving and parking; functions for connecting the drivetrain, chassis and charging technology; and ecosystems for all the brands’ mobility services and digital business models. By 2025, all new vehicle models across the Group will be based on uniform, cross-brand software solutions. In pursuing this approach, we intend to generate economies of scale in the Group in order to reduce costs for software in the vehicle for all brands.